AMERICANA DC offers tidbits of history and culture from the nation's capital to show how Washington, DC has played a starring role in the American experience from 1791 to today. Interested in seeing the capital with Americana Lady Elizabeth Sherman and hearing more stories like these? Contact her at executivetoursdc@verizon.net and check out executivetoursdc.com

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

LINCOLN’S
ROCK -- GEN. MONTGOMERY C. MEIGS

The first question for anyone planning
to visit Washington, DC is: “What should we see?” To answer this question, you
will need an exceptional guide, and that guide will need a treasure trove of stories
about Washington to convey the capital’s unique significance to America and the
world. (Excellent guides, private car, and customized tours can be found at: executivetoursdc.com.)

Everybody
knows that Washington (legally, the District of Columbia—hence the “DC”) is the
capital of the United States of America. Since 1800, when Congress moved to the
partially completed capital on the Potomac, across the river from George
Washington’s Virginia plantation, Washington, DC has served as the nerve center
of the federal government. Virtually every building, monument, and area within the
capital (and in its environs) has, at some time in the past 224 years, played a
significant role in American history. There is in fact so much to see in
Washington that even well-informed DC residents need a guide to understand and
appreciate their native city.

In honor of the Civil War’s sesquicentennial
(not, as it sounds, its 600th but rather its 150th)
anniversary, I would like to highlight Washington’s importance in that conflict
by outlining some highlights from the miraculous career of the Union’s Quartermaster
General, MONTGOMERY CUNNINGHAM MEIGS.

Eighty
years earlier, Gen. George Washington reported seeing blood in the snow where
his shoeless troops had passed. Many of his men, the General lamented to the
Continental Congress, had to go shirtless and coatless in the cold. Not so
during the Civil War. With Meigs at the helm, the Union lads had stuff aplenty.
No soldier lacked for powder, or clothes, or food, or tents, or transport. The
Army was sadly lacking in qualified Generals—but it had plenty of stuff.

Marvelous
Meigs, who spent the earlier part of his career in the Army Corps of Engineers,
was also responsible for fixing navigation on the Mississippi (a project he
worked on under fellow West Pointer Robert E. Lee) and building the DC Aqueduct
to bring water to the City. This last entailed building a single-span bridge (the
Union Arch Bridge, designed by Alfred Rives), which for 50 years held the
record as the longest single-span masonry arch in the world.

Clever
Meigs installed the iron dome (the one you see behind anchor people on TV) that
completed the U.S. Capitol and gives it its iconic shape. When the air inside
the Capitol turned out to be fetid (and smelly from the necessaries being too
close at hand), he designed and built aeration towers still in use today.

Patriot
Meigs bore a personal grudge against Robert Lee, whom he considered had
betrayed his West Point oath to protect the Union. After the Battle of Bull Run
(First Manassas), it was Meigs who personally saw to it that the Union dead
were dug up and replanted in Mrs. Lee's rose garden—thereby establishing our
national military burial ground on the ground of the Lee’s Arlington plantation.
Fittingly, the gates to Arlington Cemetery today bear an inscription chosen by,
who else?—Montgomery Meigs.

Surprising
Meigs, who spent most of the war moving around troops and materiel, even had
his brief moment of glory in the field. Late in the war, Lee realized that the
bulk of Grant’s army was in Virginia, leaving the capital virtually undefended.
He sent a Confederate force led by Jubal Early across the Potomac to circle
around and march on Washington from the north.

On
an insufferably hot July 9th, at Monacacy Junction, MD not far from
Washington, Early’s forces met with unexpectedly strong resistance from a
small, brave Union garrison. These citizen soldiers fought all day under the
blazing sun. By evening, the Rebs had won but were so exhausted that Early
decided to rest for a day before advancing on Washington. That decision—plus
the fine wine cellar the troops discovered in the Blair mansion in Silver
Spring just outside the City—bought Grant just enough time to shift seasoned troops
back to the capital.

Early’s
troops could be seen advancing on Ft. Stephens on the District’s NW boundary at
noon on July 12, 1864, precisely when, five miles to the south, Grant’s troops were
disembarking at the city’s harbor. Until Grant's troops arrived to save the day
(which they did), responsibility for holding Fort Stephens fell to the
unseasoned home forces. And who was the General in charge of Ft. Stephens? Just
take a guess. (President & Mrs. Lincoln actually came out to see the
fighting, but that is a story for another time.)

By
War’s end, Meigs had lost his beloved President (he was one of the few
officials admitted to Peterson’s Rooming House during Lincoln’s last hours) and
his only son, but iron Meigs was far from defeated.

He continued on as Quartermaster General for another two decades. He built (but did not design) the charming brick Arts & Industries Building, next to the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall. Most remarkably, he designed and built the huge Pension Building, now the National Building Museum—a handsome brick phenomenon (he was economy-minded) encircled by an intriguing and remarkably detailed terracotta frieze by the Czech-American sculptor Caspar Buberl.

Designed to honor all four branches of military service, the frieze consists of four identical sets of panels (cavalry, infantry, navy, quartermaster corps), which were reshuffled and recombined for economy’s sake to create new combinations all around the building. In line with his abolitionist sentiments, Meigs insisted that the soldier driving the supply wagon be a freed man of color, and in line with his engineering prowess, the boasts the largest indoor Corinthian columns in the world.

Critics called it "Meigs's
brick yard,” and on seeing it, William Tecumseh Sherman remarked: "Too bad
it's fireproof." Yet for the quarter century following
its completion (1885-1909), the Pension Building’s airy main hall
(ventilated at the top—another Meigs invention) hosted every Presidential inaugural
ball.

At
his death, General Meigs was buried in Arlington Cemetery. In the shadow of his
large white sarcophagus lies a surprisingly small bronze slab marking the
grave of his heroic son, lying dead in the mud amid hoof-prints from the Confederate
ambush that had killed him. So ends our tribute to the great but largely unsung U.S. patriot, engineer, inventor, architect, and indispensable hero of the Civil War—Genl. Montgomery C. Meigs.

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About Me

Americana Lady Elizabeth Sherman, who is now passionate about U.S. stories, came to the subject late--after a Ph.D. in Egyptology and many years as a freelance writer in science & economics. Today, she is hooked on the charm, beauty, and significance of her native Washington, DC.